I mentioned way back in April that I had planted a number of vegetable seeds, among which was the pepper paprika. Only one seedling sprouted, and the plant just seemed to take its time growing at a leisurely pace. Nothing remarkable happened, so I had nothing to say about it.

Until now.

A month ago, I thought I’d be able to mention it when I noticed what looked like a bud forming. But, we were in the middle of that dry spell, and the bud aborted. Then, a week ago, I noticed another couple of buds forming. I’ve been waiting with bated breath, and I can finally unveil some news and pictures:

My pepper paprika plant is finally flowering!

Two forming buds - they're tiny at about 5mm across. Think peppercorn size...

It's really pretty when you take a close up look at it, but the opened flower is in reality only 15mm (1.5cm) across!

One thing, though – my new “buddies”, the whiteflies, are very attracted to the plant, so constant vigilance will be needed to keep this plant happy and healthy. I was rudely shocked when I looked at the undersides of some of the leaves and saw clusters of whiteflies and their eggs. I cleaned off the less infested leaves and removed the ones that looked too icky to touch. The whiteflies that got away weren’t too pleased with me, but I wasn’t pleased with them either. This is war, baby, and the pepper paprikas had better be worth the fight!

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